Away from the crowds, he lived a simple live. His room contained a small bed packed with straw, a bedpan, and a large pile of scripts which he read by candlelight. He ate simply, refused liquor, and kept his distance from the women of the troupe, most of whom were little better than prostitutes. Noble men would come backstage after the show to speak with the women of the stage, talk that eventually came round to money and the lack thereof, and if the noble men later slipped into their tents, no one would call it a transaction.
On stage, Daniel dropped away, and the characters seemed to inhabit his skin. He studied the scripts not just to learn the lines, but to divine the emotions of the men he was playing. When he was finished reading, his knowledge was intimate, and the words came from his mouth unbidden by rehearsal, as though they were being said for the first time with the full force of emotion. It was as if he did not even notice the audience. At times, his devotion to the craft detracted from the performance; he did not like to cover for the mistakes of his fellow actors.
In his eighth year with the troupe, Daniel was introduced to a petite young woman who had recently joined the troupe. Her name was Eliza, which he committed to memory, and about whom he promptly forgot.
Later that week, during a staging of Hero and Leander which had been adapted from the poem by Marlowe, Eliza was playing a friend of Hero's. This was an original invention of their writer, who was following the time-worn tactic of having a close friend make bawdy puns which would be completely inappropriate coming from the virginal Hero. Daniel, as Leander, saw her for the first time. It was not merely her youth or beauty that caught his eye, but the unflinching way that she played her role. Daniel held a low opinion of comedy - the masses would burst their guts laughing at any old penny gaff - but this was something different. She did not play to the crowd, but to the other two people on stage. Daniel found himself laughing, though he'd heard the jokes told a hundred times before.
Late at night, after the third show, Daniel found himself wondering what it was that attracted him to her where so many other women had failed. After some time, he came to the conclusion that it must have been Leander; perhaps his love for Hero was not as pure as once thought, and his mind strayed to other women. With that in mind, the next night went much better - Daniel succumbed to the desire, and wrapped it into his act, a new facet of Leander for the audience to see.
A few days later, she was on his stage again, this time during an original play of the standard love quadrangle variety. Daniel played Orville, a brooding poet, while Eliza played Candice, the smith's daughter. In the end, after much chasing around and various hijinks, along with brief intervention from both gods and fairies, Orville ended up with a different character. Daniel stood beside Eliza during the curtain call though, purely by accident, and could not help but glance at her - stripped of her character, she was flushed and full of excitement, basking in the afterglow of adoration. Daniel had never gone in for audiences, had seen them merely as a distraction, but through her eyes he could somehow see the appeal.
Later that week, during a staging of Hero and Leander which had been adapted from the poem by Marlowe, Eliza was playing a friend of Hero's. This was an original invention of their writer, who was following the time-worn tactic of having a close friend make bawdy puns which would be completely inappropriate coming from the virginal Hero. Daniel, as Leander, saw her for the first time. It was not merely her youth or beauty that caught his eye, but the unflinching way that she played her role. Daniel held a low opinion of comedy - the masses would burst their guts laughing at any old penny gaff - but this was something different. She did not play to the crowd, but to the other two people on stage. Daniel found himself laughing, though he'd heard the jokes told a hundred times before.
Late at night, after the third show, Daniel found himself wondering what it was that attracted him to her where so many other women had failed. After some time, he came to the conclusion that it must have been Leander; perhaps his love for Hero was not as pure as once thought, and his mind strayed to other women. With that in mind, the next night went much better - Daniel succumbed to the desire, and wrapped it into his act, a new facet of Leander for the audience to see.
A few days later, she was on his stage again, this time during an original play of the standard love quadrangle variety. Daniel played Orville, a brooding poet, while Eliza played Candice, the smith's daughter. In the end, after much chasing around and various hijinks, along with brief intervention from both gods and fairies, Orville ended up with a different character. Daniel stood beside Eliza during the curtain call though, purely by accident, and could not help but glance at her - stripped of her character, she was flushed and full of excitement, basking in the afterglow of adoration. Daniel had never gone in for audiences, had seen them merely as a distraction, but through her eyes he could somehow see the appeal.
She came to him that night, after the crowds had cleared out. She looked shyly at the floor, then cleared her throat and locked eyes with him.
"What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?" she asked with a sweet smile.
"The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine," he responded almost automatically.
She approached his small straw bed, where he lay with a script on his lap, and he felt his strength and security fall away, as a wedding veil lifted up after the nuptials had been completed.
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